National differences in non-financial disclosure: A cross-country analysis

This chapter analyses national differences among "non-financial disclosure" reports in a cross country comparison after the introduction of 2014/95 / EU directive. The aim of the analysis is to understand what the main differences are and what they depend on. The analysis focus on the main definitions of "large organization" and "of public interest", on the company scope and on the report framework and features, or what information the report must obligatorily contain, how this information should be presented. The methodology adopted concerns the analysis of the document "Member State Implementation of Directive 2014/95 / EU", drawn up by the CSR Europe and GRI in 2017 and the analysis of the literature relating to the period 2018-2020 which analyzed the actual application in the national context and/or making comparisons between different European nations. The main comments obtained from the 2020 public consultation for the revision of the directive are also added. This study is relevant as it highlights the importance of knowledge of CSR activities especially for large or listed companies but underlines some critical issues, including the inability often to create correlation between the non-financial information communicated and its impact, risks and plans.